Our shoe operations (included in “other businesses”) lost $46.2 million pre-tax, with profits at H.H. Brown and Justin swamped by losses at Dexter. I’ve made three decisions relating to Dexter that have hurt you in a major way: (1) buying it in the first place; (2) paying for it with stock and (3) procrastinating when the need for changes in its operations was obvious. I would like to lay these mistakes on Charlie (or anyone else, for that matter) but they were mine. Dexter, prior to our purchase — and indeed for a few years after — prospered despite low-cost foreign competition that was
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